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News crews assaulted by group of labourers

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(IPYS-Venezuela/IFEX) - On 17 November 2010, Doricer Alvarado and Gustavo Jiménez, Globovisión and Televen television station journalists respectively, said they were assaulted by a group of labourers in Morán, in the central eastern Venezuelan state of Lara.

Globovisión camera operators Estiven Ganadillo and Ángel García, and Néstor Díaz, who works for RCTV Internacional, were also assaulted.

According to the media personnel, the incident took place when they were covering a story about recent heavy rains that had caused extensive damages in the area. While they were reporting on the situation, a group of labourers tried to prevent them from carrying out their work. When they refused to halt their coverage of the story, the labourers beat them. The journalists believe that the labourers work for the municipality.

IPYS-Venezuela condemns these actions against journalists who were legitimately carrying out their work.

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